Mexico City, January 11, 2009, With last year's addition of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve and the town of San Miguel de Allende and the nearby Sanctuary of Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco, Mexico has now a list of 29 World Heritage Sites in the UNESCO sponsored list. The list comprises 878 sites in 145 countries, making this an average of six sites per country.

Since the addition of the Historic Center of Mexico City in 1987, Mexico has continuously committed itself to the preservation of one of the longest lists of the most beautiful sites in the world. In 2009 Mexico will be presenting El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, The Royal Road Far Inland, which for almost four centuries, beginning in the 16th century, was the main artery from Mexico City to Santa Fe, U.S.A.

Through this road Europeans arrived in what today is the United States of America decades before the arrival of the Mayflower in New England. 2,600 miles of an ancient road united Mexico City with the most important metropolis of the north. Queretaro, Guanajuato, Morelia, Guadalajara, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, Monterrey, Chihuahua, El Paso, Albuquerque and Santa Fe all depended on this main artery for communication with the capital city: Mexico. It took carriages six months to do the full distance on dirt roads. All the haciendas, monuments, inns and churches along the road will be included in this outstanding new candidate for a World Heritage Site.

This bi-national candidate will also give the U. S. A. its 21st World Heritage Site.

The full list for Mexico includes:

Historic Center of Mexico City and Xochimilco (1987)
Historic Center of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Alban (1987)
Historic Center of Puebla (1987)
Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque (1987)
Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan (1987)
Sian Ka'an (1987)
Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent Mines (1988)
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza (1988)
Historic Center of Morelia (1991)
El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City (1992)
Historic Center of Zacatecas (1993)
Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco (1993)
Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino (1993)
Earliest 16th-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatepetl (1994)
Historic Monuments Zone of Queretaro (1996)
Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal (1996)
Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara (1997)
Archeological Zone of Paquime, Casas Grandes (1998)
Historic Monuments Zone of Tlacotalpan (1998)
Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco (1999)
Historic Fortified Town of Campeche (1999)
Ancient Maya City of Calakmul (2002)
Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda of Queretaro (2003)
Luis Barragan House and Studio (2004)
Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California (2005, 2007)
Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila (2006)
Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) (2007)
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (2008)
Protective town of San Miguel de Allende and the Sanctuary of Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco (2008)